Män som hatar kvinnor... Bless you
Yesterday, I saw the first installment of Stieg Larsson's Millenium trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The HBP trailer was screened just before which was extremely surprising considering Millenium in an R rated movie. But holy hell, it looked great on the big screen. We have less than two months to go.
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The Millenium trilogy was written by Stieg Larsson few years ago. He died in 2004 after delivering the books to his publisher.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of a journalist, Michkel Blomkvist, convicted of libel against Hans-Erik Wennerström, head of a big industrial group. Blomkvist is hired by an old billionaire, Henrik Vanger, to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance 40 years before of his niece, Harriet. After much hesitation, Blomkvist accepts to work for Vanger because the old man tells him he's got elements that prove Wennerström is corrupted.
And that's where you can find the first deviation from the book. Blomkvist is never offered information about Wennerström in exchange of the work he's going to do for Vanger. So it's a bit difficult to understand why Blomkvist accepts to spend a year in the freezy old town of Hedestad to work on a case nobody has managed to solve in 40 years.
Blomkvist has several relationships in the book. He is divorced, but is in a very open relationship with Erika Berger, Millenium's co-owner. When he moves to Hedestat, he meets Cecilia Vanger, another niece of Henrik Vanger and starts an affair with her. Then, Lisbeth Salander, a young hacker whose mission was to spy on Blomkvist enters his life and they become lovers.
In the movie, it is not stated, nor implied that he has a relationship with either Erika Berger or Cecilia Vanger. Only the one with Lisbeth Salander is shown. I guess the filmmakers thought that the legendary scandinavian sexual freedom wouldn't go over well in other countries.
I was concerned they would shy away from Lisbeth Salander's sordid backstory, but to my surprise, they didn't.
Blomkvist investigation about Harriet in the movie differs from the book on several points. One of the main changes was the way he discovers the meaning of the names and numbers found in Harriet's diary. The names are actually those of several young women killed and tortured in the 40's, 50's and 60's. The numbers correspond to verses from the Leviticus in the Bible, describing punishments that await women who have sinned. In the book, it is Blomkvist's daughter, a teenager going through a religious phase, that gives him the key to these numbers. In the movie, it is Lisbeth Salander who sends the answers to him by e-mail. The problem is Salander's interest for religion is never established.
The movie doesn't really explains how Salander finds out about Harriet's fate. The beginning and the ending of the movie feels very rushed anyway. There is a lot of focus on Blomkvist and Salander, which is not a bad thing, but the movie needed at least an extra half an hour for the story to be told correctly. None of the secondary characters has enough screentime to make a real impact.
There are little things in the book that I missed and that I really wanted to see. I missed Blomkvist's scolding Salander about privacy and propriety. I missed Salander's misplaced jealousy when she sees Blomkvist laughing with Erika Berger. I missed all the drama surrounding Blomqvist's magazine.
The movie wasn't bad but as with all adaptations, it stayed too much on the surface. That said, the directing and the acting was pretty good. Noomi Rapace in particular was very convincing in the difficult role of Lisbeth Salander.
Rumour has it that the next too installments of the saga are going to be adapted into a TV series. If it's true, I'm personally looking very much forward to that. A TV series would be more likely to do justice to the complexity of the story.
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Tori Amos is coming to Europe in the fall !!!
And she stops in Paris on October the 3rd. I can't wait. Her last concert in France kind of disappointed me. She didn't seem to be much into it. It didn't help that we had the least interesting doll on stage that night (Clyde). I hope the next one will be much better. And I really want to travel to see her outside of France this time.
Hew new album, Abnormally attracted to Sin is not out yet, but I've had the opportunity to listen to it on the net. It sounds like a mix between American Doll Posse, To Venus And Back and the Beekeeper. It's quite uneven. There are a few excellent songs, some good ones and a couple of awful ones. Still, it's a new Tori Amos album, and since I'm more a fan of hers than I am of any other artists, I'm very excited.
***************************
Great news ! The Misérables is coming to Paris.
Ironically, in its english version. I've been wanting to see the show since I saw the video of the 10th Anniversary Dream Cast in Concert in London during a placement in England (and not since I saw Susan Boyle's on Britain's Got Talent). The tickets are freaking expensive : from 25,50€ to 100,50€ !!! I'll have to see if I can't have cheaper tickets at my work. But I'll see it anyway, regardless of the price.
***************************
The Millenium trilogy was written by Stieg Larsson few years ago. He died in 2004 after delivering the books to his publisher.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo tells the story of a journalist, Michkel Blomkvist, convicted of libel against Hans-Erik Wennerström, head of a big industrial group. Blomkvist is hired by an old billionaire, Henrik Vanger, to solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance 40 years before of his niece, Harriet. After much hesitation, Blomkvist accepts to work for Vanger because the old man tells him he's got elements that prove Wennerström is corrupted.
And that's where you can find the first deviation from the book. Blomkvist is never offered information about Wennerström in exchange of the work he's going to do for Vanger. So it's a bit difficult to understand why Blomkvist accepts to spend a year in the freezy old town of Hedestad to work on a case nobody has managed to solve in 40 years.
Blomkvist has several relationships in the book. He is divorced, but is in a very open relationship with Erika Berger, Millenium's co-owner. When he moves to Hedestat, he meets Cecilia Vanger, another niece of Henrik Vanger and starts an affair with her. Then, Lisbeth Salander, a young hacker whose mission was to spy on Blomkvist enters his life and they become lovers.
In the movie, it is not stated, nor implied that he has a relationship with either Erika Berger or Cecilia Vanger. Only the one with Lisbeth Salander is shown. I guess the filmmakers thought that the legendary scandinavian sexual freedom wouldn't go over well in other countries.
I was concerned they would shy away from Lisbeth Salander's sordid backstory, but to my surprise, they didn't.
Blomkvist investigation about Harriet in the movie differs from the book on several points. One of the main changes was the way he discovers the meaning of the names and numbers found in Harriet's diary. The names are actually those of several young women killed and tortured in the 40's, 50's and 60's. The numbers correspond to verses from the Leviticus in the Bible, describing punishments that await women who have sinned. In the book, it is Blomkvist's daughter, a teenager going through a religious phase, that gives him the key to these numbers. In the movie, it is Lisbeth Salander who sends the answers to him by e-mail. The problem is Salander's interest for religion is never established.
The movie doesn't really explains how Salander finds out about Harriet's fate. The beginning and the ending of the movie feels very rushed anyway. There is a lot of focus on Blomkvist and Salander, which is not a bad thing, but the movie needed at least an extra half an hour for the story to be told correctly. None of the secondary characters has enough screentime to make a real impact.
There are little things in the book that I missed and that I really wanted to see. I missed Blomkvist's scolding Salander about privacy and propriety. I missed Salander's misplaced jealousy when she sees Blomkvist laughing with Erika Berger. I missed all the drama surrounding Blomqvist's magazine.
The movie wasn't bad but as with all adaptations, it stayed too much on the surface. That said, the directing and the acting was pretty good. Noomi Rapace in particular was very convincing in the difficult role of Lisbeth Salander.
Rumour has it that the next too installments of the saga are going to be adapted into a TV series. If it's true, I'm personally looking very much forward to that. A TV series would be more likely to do justice to the complexity of the story.
***************************
Tori Amos is coming to Europe in the fall !!!
And she stops in Paris on October the 3rd. I can't wait. Her last concert in France kind of disappointed me. She didn't seem to be much into it. It didn't help that we had the least interesting doll on stage that night (Clyde). I hope the next one will be much better. And I really want to travel to see her outside of France this time.
Hew new album, Abnormally attracted to Sin is not out yet, but I've had the opportunity to listen to it on the net. It sounds like a mix between American Doll Posse, To Venus And Back and the Beekeeper. It's quite uneven. There are a few excellent songs, some good ones and a couple of awful ones. Still, it's a new Tori Amos album, and since I'm more a fan of hers than I am of any other artists, I'm very excited.
***************************
Great news ! The Misérables is coming to Paris.
Ironically, in its english version. I've been wanting to see the show since I saw the video of the 10th Anniversary Dream Cast in Concert in London during a placement in England (and not since I saw Susan Boyle's on Britain's Got Talent). The tickets are freaking expensive : from 25,50€ to 100,50€ !!! I'll have to see if I can't have cheaper tickets at my work. But I'll see it anyway, regardless of the price.